“A woman who admires a man who is bold and brave should learn how to uphold her prestige, decency and grace.”

“What's the link between the woman who boldly fights for social justice and the one who boldly has fun? Both are acting powerfully, because each is rejecting preconceived notions of how females 'should' behave.”

“Man is the one who desires, woman the one who is desired. This is woman's entire but decisive advantage. Through man's passions, nature has given man into woman's hands, and the woman who does not know how to make him her subject, her slave, her toy, and how to betray him with a smile in the end is not wise.”

“No man is offended by another man's admiration of the woman he loves; it is the woman only who can make it a torment.”

“Vanity is so firmly anchored in man's heart that a soldier, a camp follower, a cook or a porter will boast and expect admirers, and even philosophers want them; those who write against them want to enjoy the prestige of having written well, those who read them want the prestige of having read them, and perhaps I who write this want the same thing.”

“A man who desires to soften another man's heart, should always abuse himself. In softening a woman's heart, he should abuse her.”